Wilson, who played minor league baseball for parts of two seasons before becoming an NFL star, will be placed on Texas’ restricted list.

“At the end of the day, he obviously has a lot bigger things that he’s working on right now,” Rangers assistant general manager A.J. Preller said, “and we don’t want to interrupt with that aspect of it. But if at some point down the road he decides he wants to do baseball again, we felt like it would be a positive to have him with us.”

Wilson was drafted as a second baseman by the Rockies in the fourth round of the 2010 amateur draft out of North Carolina State, where he excelled at both baseball and football. In two seasons at the Class A level he hit .229 with five homers and 26 RBIs.

In 2011, he left the Rockies for football at the University of Wisconsin. He was required to return to the Rockies a portion of his $200,000 signing bonus.